The Force Awakens - Issue/Argument/Resolution - Part 3

In the time since I start the whole "Issue/Argument/Resolution" posts, I have actually seen the movie a third time.  I don't know if it added much to my resolutions seeing it a third time through, and I think I'm sitting in a fairly comfortable nerdy position with this movie.  We've come to a kind of understanding.  It knows that I like it, but there are things I don't like about it, too.  (If only some Star Wars fans were so kind.  ;p )

So we'll continue.  And as always...

First Viewing Issue #2: General Leia Organa.

First Viewing Argument #2: The first time I saw the movie, I walked out the door infuriated with Leia for sending Han on - what I considered at the time - a fool's errand.  "If you see our son, bring him home."  Really.  You're going to send your estranged lover (husband?) out after your kid who killed a bunch of people, turned to the Dark Side, made your brother go into hiding, and probably more bad stuff I don't even know about yet.  You're going to send Han on a suicide mission to bring him back thanks to the guilt trip you just threw at him?

I wanted her to get up, leave behind this Resistance fighter group, and go and find your son if you want him home!  Don't tell someone your sob story about how much you miss him, and then you don't do anything about it.

Second Viewing Resolution #2: Sooo...I'll admit.  a lot of my issues here were personal bleed-through.  I realized that this time around.  That's my fault entirely.  We all carry baggage into movies/books/theater.  I carried mine.  The clasp broke.  And everything I owned spilled out on the baggage claim track.  My bad.

Upon my second viewing, I had very little issue with Leia onscreen.  Carrie Fisher wasn't given too much to work with in terms of dialogue or screen time, but I think she did the best she could with what she had.  In the future, I'm hoping Leia's lines feel a little less...wooden in areas.  I still felt like the writers had her a bit stiff when she spoke - it felt a little too Mon Mothma to me at times.

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First Viewing Issue #3:  Han and Leia's relationship in on screen.

First Viewing Argument #3: I think my biggest issue here is that I hate that the happy ending we had a the end of Return of the Jedi was broken up.  When we enter into The Force Awakens and learn who these characters are no, I feel like their lives fell apart so easily (granted, maybe it wasn't easy.  We didn't see it, but that's just how it feels when you're throw into the thick of it all.)

Both characters had grown so much, and I really hate that this "death" of their son drove them away from each other so easily and harshly.  I know that everyone reacts to death and loss in a different manner, but it doesn't seem to fit here to me.  Leia lost her entire planet in A New Hope, and she managed to hold it together like a queen.  So The Force Awakens seems like a huge steps backward for both Han and Leia, and I don't really seem them as those kinds of people who retreat.

Second Viewing Resolution #3: I'm still not thrilled with this idea of having them both retreat.  I don't agree that it fits the characters 100%, but I also know I'm not familiar with the circumstances that drove them apart.  Perhaps as more information is released, I'll change my mind.  But for now, this isn't resolved fully in my brain.

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First Viewing Issue #4: Eradicating the Expanded Universe and yet keeping it very much alive in a not-so-great fashion.

First Viewing Argument #4: Some of the most hated (or at least the hardest parts to like) of the Expanded Universe were actually kept as major plot points despite the big stink about completely throwing away the old EU and starting over with a clean slate.  The "clean slate" appears to just be a slate with a few leftover crumbs on it that we're going to rename a bit and spruce up and make them look sparkly and new.

Starkiller Base - allow me to introduce you to the Sun Crusher.

Ben - really.  Why are we naming Han and Leia's kid Ben?  Oh, after Obi-Wan Kenobi, you might say.  But wait.  Did Leia or Han ever know Obi-Wan by the name of Ben?  I mean, really know him?  No.  Doesn't make sense to me.  Plus, do you really want to upset a bunch of EU fans who already have it in their brain that Luke and Mara Jade's son is named Ben?  Yep.  I guess you do.  But really, when Han shouted Ben, it was actually kind of off-putting to me.

Han and Leia's son turning to the Dark Side - hello, story of Jacen Solo.  (Which is why I stand by my idea that Rey cannot be Han and Leia's daughter.  If they really want to rehash the EU, then they've done an excellent job if they go that route.)

Han running away after a "death" - and hello to Han's reaction after his youngest son died in the EU.  Now, I never read this far, but the friends I've spoken to who did absolutely hated Han's reaction and thought it did not fit with his character.  I agree.

Second Viewing Resolution #4: This still isn't resolved for me.  I feel like if you say you're going to delete something - delete it, please.  Don't take those ideas, sort of rebrand them and repackage them and then not give any sort of credit to the author's who forged that path (even if it wasn't great) before.  I'm sure my bitterness will end over this eventually, but for right now, it's still rather fresh.